Last fall, I met with some representatives of a major company in my community to discuss math education in our schools. The number one take-away: We want workers who know the answer to the question, "What does the data tell you?"
It is common for teachers to present math pictures or problems to students and ask them "What do you notice? What do you wonder?" But this post focuses on true data and how we can get students to look at it more thoughtfully, with the ultimate goal being that they can use the information to be better informed about the world around them.
Jo Boaler and youcubed have come up with data talk images! Here is a link to their page of images (which I am sure will grow...) Displaying these data images to students not only is great practice with graphs and infographics, but it also allows them to be better readers and understanders of data. While these might make a great start to a math lesson, they can also be wonderfully embedded into content areas such as social studies and science--all with the simple questions, "What do you notice?" "What do you wonder?"
Another resource that I often lead teachers to is numberless graphs. Much like numberless word problems, numberless graphs force students to think and make relationships about the things they know from the graph while still missing key information. Also much like a numberless word problem, the data is slowly revealed to them to help them make sense of it all in a thoughtful way.
No matter the grade you teach, what are you doing to engage your students in reading and understanding data? Consider trying some of the links above, and watch the lightbulbs go off!